Zbynek Michalek hasn’t always been the asset that the Pittsburgh Penguins were hoping for when they signed him in 2010 – at least for his price – but he has a way of bringing it against his former team.

Michalek scored a rare goal to help Pittsburgh beat the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1, giving the Pens their sixth win in a row while bumping the idle Dallas Stars up to first place in the Pacific Division.

It’s easy to zero in on Michalek for his unusual contribution, but as usual, it was about the Penguins’ big guns. Evgeni Malkin crawled ahead of Steven Stamkos in the Art Ross race by nabbing point No. 81 on an assist on Chris Kunitz’ eventual game-winner, but Marc-Andre Fleury was the real star.

Fleury stopped 36 out of 37 shots to push his season record to 35-14-3, with six wins and a non-decision in his last seven appearances. As obvious a choice as Malkin will be for the Hart Trophy voting if he stays on his lofty pace, it’s not crazy to say that MAF has been almost as valuable to the Penguins’ success.

Pacific roam

The Coyotes’ loss makes for a really intriguing race for the Pacific Division crown. Let’s take a simple look at the situation at hand.

Obviously there is very little separating the Stars and Coyotes, but they cannot take their two other major divisional rivals lightly, either. The Sharks are a more serious immediate threat from tie-breaker perspectives (two games in hand, comparable wins) but the Kings are trending up more than the Sharks. (San Jose is on an unsettling 2-7-1 streak.)

Ultimately, it’ll come down to closing ability and schedule. There are plenty of interesting stretches for all the teams in the last month of the season, but I cannot help but look at a season-ending home-and-home between the Kings and Sharks as an especially invigorating stretch of (potential) do-or-die hockey.

New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang provided an interesting take to Newsday’s Arthur Staple, and also reminded observes that, as an international sport, the NHL features some players who might not feel as invested in (or at least as informed about) these debates.

“I think what the NFL players are doing is amazing. It’s good that they’re all sticking together,” Ho-Sang said on Monday. “I mean, I’m Canadian, so I don’t have too much input on the matter itself. It will affect me living in the States, but the biggest thing is it’s unfortunate that the message may have gotten lost a little. Now it’s becoming a battle between the NFL and the president and originally [the protests] started because of police brutality and the mistreatment of different races.”

“Protecting the First Amendment is a huge thing,” Okposo said. “I’m a proud American, and I’m proud to be from the United States. Myself personally, I wouldn’t kneel for an anthem, but I respect those that do.”

***

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the current political climate affect NHL players or people they know.

Players in plenty of sports are navigating tough questions this week. It’s important to remember that athletes can find themselves in tough spots when addressing topics that can be polarizing and/or complex.

Can't imagine being 20 years old, talking to a pack of reporters about controversial protests, knowing that any misstep releases the hounds.

With the regular season about to kick into gear on Oct. 4, it’s certain that there will be more eyes on anthems than ever before. The insights in this post should be useful, whether NHL players kneel, sit, speak, or decide to stick to hockey.

The key: after only being able to study brains of deceased athletes, there’s a chance that living athletes with CTE might eventually be identified.

On face value, that’s great news for player health. Hockey, like other contact sports such as football, is no stranger to careers and lives being derailed by brain injuries.

Of course, the NHL and NHLPA would need to cooperate to make the most of potential progress. If you’ve watched hockey long enough, particularly postseason hockey, you know that certain protocols can stand as great concepts met with hesitant execution.

Westhead expounds on such thoughts, and some of his findings aren’t very pretty.

Players might be hesitant to take such tests if it means that they’ll miss playing time (or even see their careers end). It brings back memories of Peyton Manning willfully sandbagging his baseline concussion test. For better or worse, these guys want to play.

NHL player agent: “If I asked 30 of my players if they would take a test to tell them if they have CTE, I think zero would be interested."

Of course, it’s crucial to realize that potential breakthroughs from this study could take quite some time to trickle into functional practices, even if leagues and players end up being more willing to comply than expected.

Overall, this is promising news. Hopefully such changes could help athletes during their careers and into retirement.

Sprong, 20, was the 46th pick of the 2015 NHL Draft. He’s been generating solid numbers at the OHL, so it will be interesting to see how he converts that to AHL work. Sprong played 18 regular-season games for the Penguins back in 2015-16, notching two goals.

There are some bullet points that can sell Nolan, but the 28-year-old’s production was quite limited at the NHL level. Nolan’s never scored 10 goals in a single season; in fact, he’s only reached 10 points once in his career (six goals and four assists in 64 regular-season contests back in 2013-14).

Overall, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team targeted Nolan as a depth guy, even if his ceiling is limited.

While the Penguins’ entries seem notable for sheer volume as much as anything else, Frank Corrado is another name that stands out.

Corrado was often the catalyst for debates about his playing time (or lack thereof) with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it doesn’t seem like the defenseman is having much success catching on with the Penguins, either.

Zatkoff, meanwhile, fits in with quite a few other names on this list: possibly prominent in the AHL, only likely to get the occasional cup of coffee in the NHL, at this point.